Actually, the DC-10 has it's engine in the tail (vertical stabilizer), while the L-1011 has it's engine in the tail cone. the round opening that you see on the L-1011 is nothing more than an airscoop to feed the engine. On the DC-10, however, the engine itself is seperated from the fuselage and mounted part way up the tail. I don't know what flying tail refers to, I just wanted to clear that up. BTW, the DC-10 looks better.

on both the L1011 and DC-10 both the elevators and horizontal stabilizers move.....they move independently or as a whole...the advantage is of course handling...on take off the whole piece moves to bring the plane to rotate, as the plane climbs out of the airport, there is a trim tab for the elevators to keep the aircraft in a climb so the pilots don't have to continue to hold the stick back

All commercial airliners are like this. The horizontal stabilizer is adjusted by hydraulic jacks. This jack adjusts the angle of attack of the horizontal stabilizer to trim the aircraft. The only way the horizontal stabilizer moves is through the use of the trim wheel. The control yoke has no effect on the position of the horizontal stab.This is called a variable incidence tailplane. The DC10, or L1011, have no trim tabs.

interesting.....tell me more....the yoke doesn't control the Hor Stab? How is this not so? Don't they yank back on the yoke when they reach take off speed, and doesn't that move the hor stab into position to pull the rear down and bring the front up to rotate?

On the L1011, when you move the control column
forward or aft, hydraulic fluid is ported to 4
large actuators that move the horz stab. The
elevators are moved by cables attached to the
aft fuselage and elevator position is a function
of horz stab position. Pitch trim changes reposition the horz stab. On the MD11, fwd/aft
movement of the control column ports hydraulic
fluid to elevator actuators. Pitch trim changes
drive a hydraulic jackscrew that repositions
the horz stab. Hope this helps!

DL1011 is right your trim only the stabilizer and you fly with both. The elevators are attached to the stabilizer and move proportionally.
The reason this is done is to remove access drag in all phases of flight. What would you rather have in cruise, a large trim tab sticking out like a sore thumb into the airstream, or a flat "perfect" airfoil? The answer would be obvious.
And of course the faster a plane goes, the more critical drag becomes.
That's my side o' the coin.

I looked at the FOM for the L1011 today. It said no such thing about the horizontal stab moving in correlation with the elevator when the stick was moved. Is it model specific? Where did you get your info? I'm interested.

I posted the reasons for a flying tail up a couple of pages. There may be some variation for the specific model but the aerodynamic reasons are the same. To increase the CG range of the aircraft and to prevent a phenonom called "Mach Tuck"

On the L1011 when the control column is moved, the horz stab moves. Elevators are cable driven and position is determined by horz stab position only. Most other
airliners use a horz stab driven by a jackscrew and elevators driven by hydraulic
actuators.